The basic concept of stents has been known for a number of years. Various types of stents have been proposed and patented, including self-expanding spring types, compressed spring types, mechanically actuated expandable devices, heat actuated expandable devices, and the like. More recently, expandable sleeves have been proposed such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,665 to Palmaz, issued Mar. 29, 1988. In this and other patents Dr. Palmaz suggested a series of metal sleeves which could be expanded by a balloon catheter through the elastic limit of the metal so as to permanently deform them into contact and support of the interior surface of the blood vessel in question. Subsequently, patents to Hillstead, U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,516 issued Aug. 16, 1989 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,062 issued Dec. 12, 1989 to Wiktor, have shown stents formed of a zigzag wire wound around a mandrel in a somewhat cylindrical fashion which can then be mounted on a collapsed catheter balloon and expanded after introduction into the vessel by expanding the balloon catheter. These prior art devices have been satisfactory for certain installations, but have been limited in the amount of support that can be provided to the interior of the blood vessel wall and in some cases, to the ratio of expansion possible, and in others cases in the size of the profile presented for the transluminal insertion.